countries with definite article

Encolpius

Encolpius

Senior Member
Hungarian
Hello, it would be so nice to have a list of countries using definite article in its names. I tend to forget those exceptions, so let's make a nice collection here together.

Hungarian: a Vatikán, az USA, (a Szovjetunió 😂) - otherwise no definite article (Japán, Oroszország, Argentína, Egyiptom, etc)

a - the Hungarian definite article, i.e: English the or German der/die/das

Thank your for your cooperation. Encolpius.
 
    • Cymraeg/Welsh

    All countries are feminine.

    Yr Almaen - Germany
    Yr Alban - Scotland
    Yr Unol Daleithiau America / Yr UDA - The United States of America / The USA
    Yr Eidal - Italy
    Yr Iseldiroedd - The Netherlands
    Yr India - India (Historic use only. Now without the def. art.)
    Yr Ynys Las - Greenland ('The Blue Island')
    Yr Ariannin - Argentina
    Yr Aifft - Egypt
    Yr Emiradau Arabaidd Unedig - The United Arab Emirates
    Yr Iwerddon - Ireland (incorrect use of def. art.)

    Y Bahamas - The Bahamas
    Y Traeth Ifori - Cote d'Ivoire
    Y Swistir - Switzerland
    Y Ffindir - Finland
    Y Deyrnas Unedig / Y Deyrnas Gyfunol - The United Kingdom
    Y Wladfa - 'The Colony' (i.e. Patagonia)*
    Y Weriniaeth Tsiec - The Czech Republic / Czechia

    * Yes, not a 'country', but could not be omitted in a list by anyone from Wales.

    With def. art. embedded:

    Gwlad yr Iâ - Iceland ('Country [of] the Ice')
     
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    German (I only gave a translation for the "unrecognizable" ones :D ):

    die USA
    die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate (UAE)
    die Bahamas
    die Niederlande
    die Salomonen
    die Seychellen
    die Marschallinseln
    (all plural, hence "die")

    der Vatikan
    der Tschad (Chad)
    der Kongo
    der Irak
    der Iran
    der Oman
    der Senegal
    der Sudan

    die Ukraine
    die Mongolei (all countries ending -ei demand the feminine article, obviously)
    die Schweiz (Switzerland)
    die Slowakei (Slovakia)
    die Türkei
    die Elfenbeinküste (Ivory Coast)
    die Dominikanische Republik

    All countries with "People's Republic" in their name, but colloquially that part is dropped and no article used

    das Kosovo
    das Vereinigte Königreich (UK)

    I think I have gone through most countries of the world, not sure if I missed one.
     
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    Greek use the definite article for all country names. Most country names are feminine. Here are some examples:

    το Βατικανό (Vatican) -- το is singular neuter
    οι ΗΠΑ (USA) -- οι is plural masculine or feminine (here feminine)
    η Ιαπωνία (Japan) -- η is singular feminine
    η Ρωσία (Russia)
    η Αργεντινή (Argentina)
    η Αίγυπτος (Egypt)
    η Ελλάδα (Greece)
    ο Καναδάς (Canada) -- o is singular masculine
    ο Νίγηρας (Niger)
    τα ΗΑΕ (United Arab Emirates) -- τα is plural neuter
     
    I didn't know that about Greek. Interesting.
    It would be interesting to find more languages which use definite articles for all countries. Any idea?
     
    Italian does use the article, unlike Spanish. Countries can be both masculine and feminine.
    L'Ungheria
    La Germania
    masculine:
    Il Giappone
    L'Egitto.
    Gli Stati Uniti/United States
    Le Filippine/ the Philippines and so on are plural.
    Some countries have no article:
    Cuba (an island)
    Malta (see above)
    San Marino (a tiny country)
    Andorra
    Singapore
    Taiwan.
     
    In Dutch 'the Netherlands' are singular 'Nederland' and not 'de Nederlanden'.
    Most countries don't get an article but the exceptions are:
    De VS (the usa)
    Het verenigd koninkrijk (although normally we speak of England for the UK)
    De Filippijnen (the Philippines)
    Het Vaticaan (Vatican)
    some island states: De Seychellen, de Nederlandse Antillen
     
    Welsh_Sion said:
    Cymraeg/Welsh

    All countries are feminine.
    ............
    Gwlad yr Iâ - Iceland ('Country [of] the Ice')
    Click to expand...
    I don't know the Welsh languages, so I'm asking if it is not because all words have definite articles. Do all names have definite articles? Like: This is Adam. Would it be This is the Adam in Welsh?
     
    In regards to Mexican Spanish, I would say you hardly ever hear nowadays the definite article used with most country names. Here's a list of countries (and their capitals, as well) where you can see those which are occasionally employed with the article (in brackets), at least according to the Real Academia Española.

    There they include the following:

    • Argentina (la)
    • Bahamas (las)
    • Brasil (el)
    • Camerún (el)
    • Canadá (el)
    • Chad (el)
    • Ciudad del Vaticano (la)*
    • Comoras (las)
    • Congo (el)
    • Ecuador (el)
    • Emiratos Árabes Unidos (los)
    • Estados Unidos de América (los)
    • Gabón (el)
    • India (la)
    • Islas Marshall (las)
    • Islas Salomón (las)
    • Japón (el)
    • Líbano (el)
    • Países Bajos (los)
    • Paraguay (el)
    • Perú (el)
    • Reino Unido de Gran Bretaña e Irlanda del Norte (el)
    • República Centroafricana (la)
    • República Democrática del Congo (la)
    • República Dominicana (la)
    • Senegal (el)
    • Seychelles (las)
    • Sudán (el)
    • Uruguay (el)
    • Yemen (el)

    *This one's very often shortened to el Vaticano, and in that form it always includes the article.


    I color-coded them according to how often you might hear them with the article here in Mexico. The ones in green always or almost always include the article, the yellow ones are more or less equally used both with and without it, whereas those in red never or almost never include it.

    An important caveat to consider is that this is my personal appraisal, since I'm afraid I don't have any "official" statistics to offer regarding this subject, and I'm not even sure if there are any, to begin with, but I hope it will be of some help!
     
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    So, it's one of differences between the Iberian and Mexican Spanish?
    (Fantastic link, thanks)
     
    Encolpius said:
    So, it's one of differences between the Iberian and Mexican Spanish?
    (Fantastic link, thanks)
    Click to expand...
    I'm afraid I don't know all that well what the situation is in the case of Spain (and other Spanish-speaking countries), but as I understand it, the omission of the article in many country names is quite common across most, if not all, Spanish-speaking countries.

    I'm glad you liked the link! :)
     
    I've heard sometimes La India o El Japón, for instance. To be honest with la India and El Reino Unido the use of the definite article is pretty common (perhaps mandatory).
    Generally, you can say:
    Argentina es un hermoso país
    La Argentina del siglo dieciocho.
    España es un país europeo
    La España de la posguerra.
    This should be the general rule, but there may be some exceptions. Natives can certainly explain this subject better. :)
     
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    Olaszinhok said:
    Generally, you can hear:
    Argentina es un hermoso país
    La Argentina del siglo dieciocho.
    España es un país europeo
    La España de la posguerra.
    Click to expand...
    Indeed :), when specifying something about the country in question, the use of the definite article is compulsory, thus:

    • Alemania es la cuna de muchos grandes compositores.

    but:

    • La Alemania del siglo XIX es un tema que siempre le ha interesado.

    Or:

    • Egipto es un país con una incalculable riqueza arqueológica.

    But:

    • El Egipto que yo conozco es muy distinto del que suelen hablar en las noticias.
     
    סייבר־שד said:
    Here's a list of countries
    Click to expand...
    I think some are missing, "la China" and countries ending in "-stán" can also be used with the article (nobody does though).

    Encolpius said:
    So, it's one of differences between the Iberian and Mexican Spanish?
    Click to expand...
    The situation is similar in Spain. I would only change "Argentina" which is rarely used with the article. And I think "el Líbano" retains the article quite well, like "la India" or "el Congo". Otherwise it's just used with archipelagos and optionally with names that are phrases like "Estados Unidos", "Reino Unido", "Países Bajos".

    ----

    In Catalan we generally don't use the article, except for this list, which is probably the same as countries that take the article in outdated Spanish, that's how it's done in the media and it sounds better to me: la Xina, el Japó, el Canadà, el Brasil, etc. In day-to-day life many people don't use the article in those cases either and copy the Spanish tendency to barely use it at all.
     
    Encolpius said:
    I don't know the Welsh languages, so I'm asking if it is not because all words have definite articles. Do all names have definite articles? Like: This is Adam. Would it be This is the Adam in Welsh?
    Click to expand...
    No, not all nouns (common or proper) have the def. art. This just happens to be a special construction for a placename. cf. Gwlad yr Haf 'Country (of) the Summer' = 'Somerset' (a county in England.)

    These countries, for example, don't have the def. art. Cymru ('Wales'), Lloegr ('England'), Hwngari ('Hungary'), Pacistan ('Pakistan').

    For your sentence in translation: Dyma Adam ('Here's Adam'). But ... Dyma'r Adam y soniais amdano. ('This is the Adam, I mentioned'). And: Dyma afal ('Here's an apple') But ... Dyma'r afal y soniais amdano. ('This is the apple, I mentioned').
     
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    Dymn said:
    I think some are missing, "la China"
    Click to expand...
    Right. Yellow as per the colour system in post 10.

    Dymn said:
    countries ending in "-stán" can also be used with the article
    Click to expand...
    No.

    Dymn said:
    el Líbano" retains the article quite well
    Click to expand...
    :tick: Yellow too.

    No article involved but Mauritius is mainly named Isla Mauricio even if the official name lacks the isla part. The referent for Seychelles is also islas but it's omitted and that's why the article is used las (islas) Seychelles. In both cases, it could be debatable whether you are actually referring to the country as such or to the island(s) as such. The same could be true for Bahamas and Comoros (Comoras in Spanish).

    Dymn said:
    I would only change "Argentina" which is rarely used with the article.
    Click to expand...
    Nowadays, as rarely as el Perú.
     
    Welsh_Sion said:
    No, not all nouns (common or proper) have the def. art. This just happens to be a special construction for a placename. cf. Gwlad yr Haf 'Country (of) the Summer' = 'Somerset' (a county in England.)
    These countries, for example, don't have the def. art. Cymru ('Wales'), Lloegr ('England'), Hwngari ('Hungary'), Pacistan ('Pakistan').
    Click to expand...
    So, are there more countries with definite or without definite article? Your comments make me feel that definite article is usually used before country names, right?
     
    In English

    The Gambia
    The Congo
    The Sudan
    The Ukraine
    The Yemen
    The Lebanon
    The Netherlands
    The Philippines
    The Seychelles
    The Bahamas
    The Maldives
    The United States
    The United Kingdom
    The United Arab Emirates
    The West Indies
    The Dominican Republic
    The Yukon
    The Bronx
     
    Olaszinhok said:
    Italian does use the article, unlike Spanish. Countries can be both masculine and feminine.
    L'Ungheria La Hongrie
    La Germania L'Allemagne
    masculine:
    Il Giappone Le Japon
    L'Egitto. L'Égypte
    Gli Stati Uniti/United States Les États-Unis d'Amérique
    Le Filippine/ the Philippines and so on are plural. Les Philippines
    Some countries have no article:
    Cuba (an island) Cuba
    Malta (see above) Malte
    San Marino (a tiny country) Saint Marin
    Andorra Andorre
    Singapore Singapour
    Taiwan. Taïwan
    Click to expand...
    This looks very much like French, but there is a secondary difficulty. Which preposition to use with the country. If it is feminine it is en and the article disappears, if it is masculine or plural and the country starts with a consonant it is à and combines with the article. If it is masculine and it starts with a vowel en is used and the article disappears.
    Je vais/ je suis en France, en Italie, en Chine, au Portugal, au Maroc, au Chili, aux États-Unis d'Amérique, aux Pays Bas, en Irak, en Iran, en Alaska.
    But à Malte, à Cuba, à Chypre
     
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    merquiades said:
    aux États-Unis d'Amérique, aux Pays Bas, en Irak, en Iran, en Alaska.
    Click to expand...
    Yes, that's a well-known grammar rule, at least for me. :)
    If the country is masculine - au au Portugal, etc.
    If it's feminine - en En Espagne, etc.
    In Italian, we say negli Stati Uniti, a Cipro, a Malta etc. Il Venezuela is masculine in Italian.
    However, one of the most common mistakes made by foreign people speaking Italian is vengo da Francia or even vengo di Turchia, instead of saying vengo dalla Francia, dalla Turchia, dal Giappone, even people who can speak decent Italian.
     
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    Olaszinhok said:
    Yes, that's a well-known grammar rule, at least for me.
    masculine names - au au Portugal, etc.
    feminine nouns - en En Espagne, etc
    In Italian, we say negli Stati Uniti, a Cipro, a Malta etc. Il Venezuela is masculine in Italian.
    However, one of the most common mistakes made by foreigner people speaking Italian is vengo da Francia or even vengo di Turchia, instead of saying vengo dalla Francia, dalla Turchia, dal Giappone, even people who can speak decent Italian.
    Click to expand...
    In Spagna, nel Portogallo, nell'Argentina???

    Yes, "coming from" is tricky in French too. Je reviens/suis de France/ du Canada.
    My first Italian sentence though: Salute da Bibione.
     
    Encolpius said:
    So, are there more countries with definite or without definite article? Your comments make me feel that definite article is usually used before country names, right?
    Click to expand...
    I haven't counted them, but I think the def. art. is the exception to the rule. Something like 70:30 - but I can be proved wrong. (I deliberately avoided the full terms such as "The (People's) Republic of ... " as we rarely use these in ordinary speech.

    Note that the def. art. is not then gender based. It would be interesting to have another thread on this, because off-hand (and I'm sure I'll be corrected on this) I can't think of other examples of languages having non-gender based def. articles which change their orthography on the basis of phonology and not gender. (French does it partially, Spanish does it occasionally in exceptional circumstances, English does it for pronunciation - but not spelling, and this last of course is not because of the gender of the following noun.) ...
     
    In Hebrew proper names are already definite so the definite article is not attached to them:
    ישראל (Israel)
    יוון (Greece)
    ארגנטינה (Argentine)
    גמביה (The Gambia)
    etc. etc.

    However, some countries have the definite article as an integral part of the name, for example:
    ארצות הברית (the United States)
    הרפובליקה הדומיניקנית (the Dominican Republic)
    איחוד האמירויות (the United Arab Emirates)

    הוותיקן (the Vatican) is another exception to the rule.
     
    Welsh_Sion said:
    I can't think of other examples of languages having non-gender based def. articles which change their orthography on the basis of phonology and not gender. (French does it partially, Spanish does it occasionally in exceptional circumstances, English does it for pronunciation - but not spelling, and this last of course is not because of the gender of the following noun.) ...
    Click to expand...
    How about Hungarian?
    the book - a könyv [before consonants]
    the school - az iskola [before vowels]
     
    In Arabic there is no rule for that. It's purely arbitrary.
    Your country Hungary has two names in Arabic. The first one has no article هنغاريا (hingaria) while the second one المجر (almajar) has an article.
     
    Encolpius said:
    How about Hungarian?
    the book - a könyv [before consonants]
    the school - az iskola [before vowels]
    Click to expand...
    In Italian that’s also a common feature, indeed:
    Il libro (le livre) il + a consonant sound
    lo scolaro (l'élève) lo + st, sch, sc, z, etc. (some consonant clusters and z)
    l'amico l' + a vowel sound.
    Also in the plural form:
    i libri (les livres) i + a consonant sound
    gli scolari (les élèves) gli+ st sch, sc, z, etc. (some consonant clusters, z and a vowel sound)
     
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    Traditionally, in older English, it was indeed the Lebanon, but this usage is very much in decline. I've noticed the shift to not using the def. art. in my own lifetime.
     
    Mahaodeh said:
    I’m not sure it’s arbitrary. I find that there is a logic to it.
    Click to expand...
    There is no logic whatsoever. I went through a lot of countries in my head and I can't think of one single thing which makes some countries names are used with definite and some others with indefinite articles.
    Things that I thought of:
    old vs new
    small vs big
    mainland vs island
     
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    Welsh_Sion said:
    Traditionally, in older English, it was indeed the Lebanon, but this usage is very much in decline. I've noticed the shift to not using the def. art. in my own lifetime.
    Click to expand...
    Lebanon as a state is a very recent thing but it occured to me that Lebanon the mountain in mentioned in the bible. I checked online some passages from the bible where Lebanon the mountain is mentioned and it is always used without the definite article. In German both the country and the mountain in the bible are used with the definite articles.
     
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    That sounds reasonable. I've certainly seen, heard and used the def. art. with the name of the country and also without at different times. Oxford dictionaries for writers and editors proposes not to use it.
     
    Penyafort said:
    It's true that most won't do, but it can still be seen for el Pakistán (see here) and, while it's not a country, for el Turquestán too.
    Click to expand...
    El Turquestán is the only one that rings a bell for me although, as you said, it's not a country. The link in your link also includes el Afganistán and I can see online that there's indeed some people using the article for the -stans. I posted the info based on personal experience but it seems my personal experience wasn't as exhaustive as it should have been so I ended posting wrong info. Sorry for any inconveniences and my apologies to @Dymn.
     
    Swedish:

    Centralafrikanska republiken
    Dominikanska republiken
    Elfenbenskusten (Cote d'Ivorie)
    Förenade arabemiraten (UAE)
    Komorerna
    Maldiverna
    Mikronesiska federationen
    Nederländerna
    Saint Vincent och Grenadinerna
    Salomonöarna
    Seychellerna
    Vatikanstaten

    These are the countries where the names have a definite article (-en, -na), it's either groups of islands, or have words like republic, coast, emirate, land/country, or state as a part of their name in Swedish.

    The word republiken is a part of the official name of many other countries in Swedish, but it's only for the two on the list where it's always used.
     
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